States Support Work-Based Learning to Expand Employment Opportunities

WASHINGTON— The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) announced that six states— Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina and Rhode Island— have been selected to participate in a policy academy focused on scaling high-quality work-based learning. Work-based learning blends work experience and applied learning to develop youth and young adults’ foundational and technical skills to expand their education, career and employment opportunities.

Funded by the Siemens Foundation, the policy academy will help states create and expand work-based learning opportunities that will connect youth and young adults ages 16 to 29 with career opportunities in STEM-intensive industries (those in the science, technology, engineering and math areas) such as advanced manufacturing, health care, information technology and energy. Through the policy academy, states will share best practices, develop plans to identify and scale high-quality programs and develop policies to support and sustain work-based learning initiatives.

This work represents the second phase of a policy academy that took place from January 2016 to June 2017; meeting materials are available online from policy academy meetings in March 2016 and October 2016. Five states from the first phase (Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, Utah and Washington) are continuing their engagement with the policy academy as “leader states” that will serve as mentors to the new cohort.

To learn more about the NGA Center Economic Opportunity Division, click here.

To learn more about the Siemens Foundation work in this area, click here.